I am well aware this topic may have been covered more than once - but I just finished watching all 4 seasons on Hulu.com and I have one big question: Why did it end there? there was so much more they could have explored with Sally and Patrick or Jane and Oliver.
I’m rather ticked off here.
I am disappointed by the lack of coupling in this thread. 
I thought it was a very neat ending, with most of the loose ends tied up.
After Jeff left, the series wasn’t doing as well, and some of the actors had other things to move on to.
I can’t remember the ending and the timing. Was that just before thingy did Pirates of the Carribean? How did it time with *Green Wing *for blonde-girl (also who’s name I forget). Steven Moffat presumably had stuff to do, but that’s a long time before he became involved with Doctor Who.
I imagine ratings were low, and actors had other opportunities.
I did see Jeff in a pub in London a few months back, though! Should’ve said hello.
I was disappointed when Jeff left, I really enjoyed his character.
I agree that is was never the same after Jeff left. I really could barely get through season 4.
IIRC, Steven Moffat started writing for Doctor Who right around the time that Coupling wrapped up. Perhaps that was part of the decision to end the show?
I concur; Season 4 was an unflushable.
I never did get through Series 4 (though I have it). I could relate to Jeff.
Granted, Jeff was very likeable; but are you all saying that even BritComs can jump the shark?
Yeah, Season Four was such a letdown for me. I never really quite realized how much Jeff was important to the entire chemistry of the show until he left. Poor series didn’t stand a chance. I don’t even want to acknowledge the existence of that last season.
I heard there was an American version of this. I wasn’t around in the US when it aired, but is it as bad as they say?
It was pure garbage. There was no chemistry between the actors, the dialog was forced, and Susan was a brunette.
eta - They did try to work Oliver in as a Jeff substitute, but they didn’t give him enough time to meld in.
You’ve got a point about the chemistry, the dialog for the first episode (at least) was taken directly from the UK version, and the brunette Susan was smokin’ hot. That line about how Steve should call the woman he fantasized about Susan fell a bit flat, to me.
I happened to see a bit of it recently, and noticed the American Jane. I really disliked the character in the UK version, but came to realize what a great job the actress did. First, there was the scene with Jake the Truth Snake. Then, watching someone else try to play the same character, I noticed subtle differences. The UK Jane just charged ahead with a sort of inevitable obliviousness. The American Jane had the same dialog, but stopped to consider things before talking. That makes a difference.
It is possible that the American director gave instructions to the effect that the actors make sure they don’t copy the UK version.
In the UK version, Steve’s fumpfering in the ladies’ room was more believable than in the US version. Also US Susan was TOO hot - not believable that she’d fall for someone who gave the first impression of being a total yutz*. If I stretch to accept that, i certainly don’t accept that she’d stay with someone who is that involved with his ex. And she certainly wouldn’t have become friends with the ex.
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- not as bad as a putz, but close
I don’t think that it was just that Jeff (Geoff?) was really good and a lot of the glue that held them together, it was also that Oliver really sucked.
Put those two together and you can see why Season 4 was problematic.
-Joe
Oliver was no Jeff, but he wasn’t bad. Although the last series did not match the earlier ones, in my opinion, even with Oliver, it remained funnier than almost any sitcom, British or American, of the last decade or so. I would certainly have liked to have seen more. This is one of teh few sitcoms that would regularly make me laugh properly, not just chuckle, out loud, on a regular basis and several times per show (mostly at Jeff, admittedly).
I can remember sitting down to watch the first episode of the American version with high hopes. I had heard that they were going to stick quite closely to the original scripts, and I thought that most of what made Coupling so good was the scripting, but boy was I wrong! It was horrible. i just do not understand why, out of all the excellent actors available in America, they could not put together a decent cast.
I have a question, however. Shortly before I first saw the British Coupling (but probably well after the original airing in Britain - I was living in America at the time), and long before the abortive American clone appeared, I happened to see a single episode of another sitcom, I think on Fox, that had a very similar dynamic to Coupling: three guys and three girls, with, IIRC, one fairly stable couple (= Steve and Susan), one dumb stud (=Patrick), one ditsy girl (=Jane), and one ethnic guy who is very hyper and extremely nervous of women (=Jeff, although in this show he was Asian rather than Welsh). (I think there was another girl too. I can’t really remember if she bore much resemblance to Sally, but then, I have always thought Sally to be the least distinctive and interesting characater anyway.) When, soon after, I first encountered the original British Coupling, I thought to myself that the show I had seen on Fox was probably an American adaptation of this British show. (Quite a few hit American sitcoms have been adapted from British originals, although usually with new scripts.) Indeed, I was surprised when I later heard that there was going to be an American version of Coupling, because I thought there had been one already.
The trouble is, I cannot remember the name of the show I saw, and I never saw or heard of it again. (I guess it got canceled fairly quickly.) Although it certainly was not as good as the British Coupling, and the comedy was a bit broader IIRC, it was certainly way better than the absolutely leaden “official” American version. Does anyone else remember this show, and what it was called? Also, were the parallels to Coupling purely coincidental (or mostly in my imagination), or was this, in fact, an earlier (and I think better, though still ultimately failed) attempt to adapt the British hit to an American audience? (Or, I suppose, did Steven Moffat actually rip-off his format from this show, whatever it was?)
Of course, three guys and three girls is a fairly standard sitcom format - not for nothing has Coupling been accused of being the British Friends - but the parallels here are much stronger than that. In particular, as I recall him, the Asian guy was very Jefflike (and almost as good).
The ultimate irony being that Coupling was meant to be the UK version of Friends, and the US version of Coupling was meant to replace…Friends. Got their time slot and everything.
-Joe
The American Susan was played by Rena Sofer who I thought was an excellent casting choice, but there was no chemistry at all with the rest of the cast and the unedited British scripts just didn’t work in a US setting.
As an actress, Rena Sofer is very beautiful.
-Joe
in any occupation, she is beautiful. But as I said - too hot to be Susan. She’d have made an interesting Jane